Blue catfish and speckled trout biting same baits in same areas of Wimbee Creek

Pieces or whole shrimp have been producing plenty of fish

BRIAN COPE January 28, 2013 at 12:00pm

To most South Carolina anglers, the inshore slam consists of redfish, speckled trout and flounder, but Wimbee Creek has been offering up a different kind of slam to anglers lately. The Beaufort County creek has been thick with speckled trout and blue catfish, and both species have been biting with vigor.
Thomas Kinsley of Ridgeland fishes Wimbee Creek regularly; he said the redfish bite has cooled off in the past few weeks, "but the catfish have been making up where the redfish left off."

Kinsley likes it that way.

"The redfish that were biting were mostly over-the-slot, and I mainly fish for the dinner table, so I'm happy catching eating-sized cats and trout," he said.

Kinsley fishes off the Wimbee Creek pier on occasion, and he also fishes from his johnboat. The state made repairs to the pier last year, and it reopened last summer; the small boat landing at the base of the pier is open to the public.

Whether he's fishing from the pier or his boat, Kinsley said the same bait and tactics are catching specks and catfish. At high tide, Kinsley is catching fish along the edges of the creek where oyster rakes are present but underwater. But the real easy fishing according to Kinsley happens at low tide.

"In the main creek or any of the tributaries, at low tide, fishing shrimp on the bottom and toward the middle of the creek is the easiest way to get a stringer full," he said.

Several freshwater rivers flow into Wimbee Creek, which empties into saltwater above Lady's Island. Kinsley said the catfish – all of which are blue cats – are easy to catch year-round here, but that the trout bite changes from year to year and month to month.

"During the summer – and when we have a lot of rain – the trout get kind of scarce, but they stay in here real thick otherwise, especially in the winter," he said.

Kinsley has been having most of his luck with whole frozen shrimp, but he sometimes has to scale down to small pieces of cut shrimp. When fishing near the edges, he like to use a popping cork just to keep the bait out of the oysters and grass, but when fishing the middle, he uses a typical Carolina rig with a half- to 1-ounce sinker and a 3/0 hook.